"If I could dance thought out my age, I would.  I will keep dancing, of course, but not regularly on the stage.  I could not stop dancing even if I tried.  But now more casually and giving what I have learned to the next generation is worthwhile.  I will enjoy it I think.  And I will be teaching not just ballet either.  Folk dances from various places we have toured, and formal dancing for the ball dances."  She explained.  "I would rather people remember me at my best than later on when I fail or get weaker.  And now I can look at perhaps for a home of my own."

Gareth glanced at the brother briefly. "I can imagine it would be hard to be away from your family though..."

She nodded and took a sip of tea, allowing herself to think of her words again.  Setting down the cup softly, she looked back at Gareth.  "That will be harder than leaving the stage.  I will always have dancing and music near me.  The family being far away," she and her brother gave a warm look of sadness, "will be the worst part.  They understand that I want a family one day.  I have not been as lucky as my parents to find a fellow dancer to match my heart.  My sister is to be married to one of the dancers next year.  Boris is courting a fellow ballerina back home in Russia.  Kirill like myself has interests of his own but like me is looking for his soulmate.  We knew we would not always be together.  But we will visit often.  That is planned and in concrete."

Gareth smiled and nodded. And as for the teaching, what would be the intended audience?"

He had a good question, one she had put a lot of thought to.  "Well, eventually there will be performers for the families and local friends.  Then as we gain more skill and find those able to more advanced levels of the dance, I expect proper shows with a local company we create.  People will come to see it as they have for our performances.   There will also be classes for the ball dancing of the young debutantes and perhaps even private lessons for special occasions, like weddings and the such."

Gareth wrote that down. "Why Whitby?" he asked. "I can imagine a big city like London would get you far more pupils?

That one was easy.  Raisa offered to add him more tea before refilling her brother's and then her own cup.  "I have spent my whole life in the busy crowded cities.   I am ready for a quieter kind of life.  I am not made of the thing needed for the country, but a smaller town with all the important things and social life, it is all I need.  When this came up as a possible place for our tour, I researched in on it and found it to be just the right combination of things I was looking for."

"That makes sense," Gareth said. "Now let's go back to your performing career. What would you say has been the most challenging part or moment?"

She broke a bit off the scone and brought it slowly to her lips as she thought about that question.  "That is difficult.  There have been many times when focusing was difficult."  She took a breath as one memory came to mind.  "When I was seventeen, there was a time when someone I was close to and I had talked of marriage, he had been planning to talk to my parents."  She smiled warmly at that part of the memory.  "We were deeply in love, but very young and innocent" she paused with a chuckle.  "I have lived most of my life in the dance studio or on stage, you know and so had he.  He was another dancer of course.  The lead at the time."

She took another sip of the tea.  "He got sick though before he could talk about marriage to Papa about asking for my hand in marriage.  It seemed not something bad at first, but he didn't get better.  Then much worse.  He passed away of it before his 18th birthday."

"I had trouble dancing at all.  Finally, Papa knowing I had loved Tomas, was gentle with me during the practices but decided that I had to get myself together.  After two terrible performances,  Papa pulled me aside on the third one after Tomas's death and said to dance for Tomas when I was on the stage as if he was there watching me.  It helped.  It was one of my best performances.  I still mourn for his loss, but over time I knew he was watching over me."  She smiled.  It was years ago and there had been many romances since then but that had been her first love.

Now there was something his readers would love. A good tragedy to spice things up! Gareth quickly drank some of his forgotten tea and made a note. "I'm very sorry for your loss, Miss Dmitriev. I imagine there is usually little time for romance on the stage?" He didn't believe that. As far as he knew, performers fucked away, but it was a little rude to ask that, so a reversed question would have to do.